For more than 40 years, Britto has been a basketball coach, official, mentor and ambassador for the children of New Bedford. He uses the game to teach the youngsters of the Whaling City about respect, responsibility and a sense that the city is all one big community, not a conglomerate of neighborhoods that just happen to share a handful of zip codes.

"That's just who he is. It's in his blood," said Jeff Miller, who has known Britto for 40 years. "He loves the game of basketball, but more than that, he loves helping the youth in this city."

"Basketball is just the vehicle for him to reach the kids," said Ron Benedetti, who has also known Britto for 40 years.

Britto's contributions have earned him plenty of recognition over the years; it's hard to mention basketball in the city without smiling and thinking of him.

"For nearly two generations," Mayor Jon Mitchell said, "Peter has been a positive role model for young athletes in our city. Through the game of basketball, he has made New Bedford a stronger community."

But for Britto, strengthening the community is just a side effect of the love and care he shows for each child of New Bedford.

It was a love that, even when things in the city were at its bleakest, never wavered.

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Britto still remembers the summer they couldn't play.

"Ten years ago, while I was still (running the) Monte Park (league), there was an outbreak of violence in the city. A man was shot right across the street from the park," he said. "At one time I had 300 kids in that league, and suddenly I couldn't get five kids together to start a team because their parents wouldn't let them come to the park. So that summer we didn't do anything at all for the first time in 30 years."

It was a tough time for him, worrying about what the kids were doing when there was no basketball to keep them focused.

"For 30 years, we never had any shootings or knifings or any of that in Monte Park, but times have changed," said Britto, a former Superior Court officer who retired 12 years ago. "These days, some of the kids are punks. There are drugs on the streets. Times have changed in the past 30 years."

The summer following the shooting across from Monte Park, Britto was determined to bring basketball back as a signal that fear was not going to rule New Bedford.

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New Bedford Youth United, a phoenix that rose from the ashes of the former Monte Park basketball league, is celebrating its 10th season this summer. It features about 120 players from across the city, and pays no heed to any type of border, real or imagined, from neighborhood to neighborhood. The games are played at parks across the city, so there's no "home court" advantage, yet a true sense of community surrounds the games.

Youth United has also been successful because of its formula: Each player gets exactly the same amount of playing time, with a new group of five taking the court every four minutes. The girls play on the same teams as the boys, and the teams are selected with a purposeful balance to distribute the talent equally.

"If we think one team is 2-3 guys strong, we'll take one player and put him on a weaker team," Britto said. "The really good kids can make everyone else around them better, and they also learn a lot about patience and leadership if they're playing with someone who isn't as good."

The league started off charging just $10 for a 10-week season, but now it's up to $25 — still extremely affordable. These days, it's under the auspices of the Department of Parks, Recreations and Beaches, but Britto is still down there the two nights a week when the games are played.

"It was slow to start, but it grew a little more and more each year because of our relationship with the young people," he said, noting his plan is to eventually offer the league with no fee whatsoever.

Britto's son, Eric, owns TrueBounce, a company that manufactures unique backboards. He said if the family can make enough money off the venture, they would underwrite the league's fees.

"Then we can fund the league ourselves and not charge anything to play," he said. "Why should we charge if we can have the money to put it all together? That's our outlook."

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His sense of community and sacrifice has rubbed off on nearly everyone Britto has come in contact with over the past 40 years.

"He's an icon in the city because he embraced everyone's child, not just his own," said Bernadette Souza, executive director of Trips for Kids. "He instilled in us that if we set our mind to it, we can do it. That's what he gave us, more than basketball. He gave us hope."

Souza started playing basketball for Our Lady of the Assumption in the CYO league when she was 7 years old, and was immediately impressed by Britto, who was her coach.

"He played a major role in my upbringing," she said. "My dad passed away when I was 5, and Mr. Britto was the dad I kind of never really had. He taught me everything I know about the game of basketball, and even more about life."

Souza said that even though he lived on County Street, Britto was a major presence in her Bay Village neighborhood, making an impact on the children there. It inspired her to give back to her city, and she served as the assistant director of the Boys and Girls Club for many years before taking on a new role at Trips for Kids.

"I always adored him, and was impressed with how everyone always looked up to him," she said. "Mr. Britto — even though he's told me many times over the years to call him Peter, I just can't do it — didn't just teach us about basketball or even just life. He gave us hope."

Ron Benedetti remembers first seeing Britto in the old M.C. Swift store on Union Street, when Benedetti was working there as a high school student in the late 1960s.

"He came in to buy clothes, and he was always a dapper guy," Benedetti said. "That's what first caught my eye. He probably didn't know who I was, but I knew who he was."

Jeff Miller met Britto through the recreation league program about 40 years ago, when he was 14 or 15 years old.

"I just remember him as being a really kind, level-headed person that always seemed like he was trying to help the kids," Miller recalled. "I think that's why he's always had the respect of the kids, because they see how he handles himself. He's genuine, and he's always trying to do the right thing."

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Benedetti and Britto kept crossing paths over the years — working with the New Bedford Boys and Girls Club and the City of New Bedford basketball league — and the two always had a connection. It was the same with Miller, who had remained a part of area basketball after graduating college. So when Britto had the idea of creating a new youth league after the folding of the Monte Park organization, he recruited the two to help him, along with another friend, Walter Jones, who was running a league at UMass Dartmouth.

"I knew I could trust those guys, because they taught the game the same way I taught it," Britto said. "That's why this league has been so successful, because of guys like them."

Yet the league would never have come into being, had it not been for Britto.

"After all the violence, Peter had this vision of bringing kids together, hoping to stop it all," Benedetti said. "That's how we ended up with the name Youth United. Peter was the big thing, he was the visionary. The rest of us just helped put together all the nuts and bolts, but it was Peter's vision that drove us."

For Britto, basketball had always been about something more than just putting a round ball through a 10-foot-high hoop. It was a way to teach, a way to mold and a way to show the youth of New Bedford that there was something more beyond the streets on which they grew up.

He organized massive tournaments in conjunction with the annual Cape Verdean parade, bringing scores of talented teams in from all over New England. He also facilitated an annual trip to Martha's Vineyard, under the auspices of playing hoops, but really to get them into a different environment for a day.

"A lot of those kids had never been on a boat. They'd never even been out of New Bedford," said Benedetti. "But that was part of Peter's vision, to get them out of the city and show them something different."

It's a tradition that continues today.

"It's a good treat for the kids," Britto said. "We get them on the boat, give them jerseys, some money to buy food. The games get over between 3-4 p.m. so they have until 8:30 to hang around Oak Bluffs. They love it, they have a great time."

Youth United will be Britto's lasting legacy in the city; at 81 years old, he's given over half of his life to the youth of New Bedford.

"I don't think he's ever looked at the kids as being too much for him," Miller said. "Even at his age, and as the kids change and the times change, his dedication and love for the children of New Bedford has never wavered."

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When the violence shut down the Monte Park league a decade ago, most 70-somethings would have just decided it was time to hang up their whistle and find a new passion to follow in their golden years.

But that's not Peter Britto.

"Because it was a good thing, Mr. Britto couldn't just walk away," Souza said. "That's what I like about him, that perseverance. He wants to figure out the situation instead of just giving up. It's easy to give up, but he wants to find a way to make it work for the youth of the city."

Peter and his wife, Avis, have been married for almost 55 years, and she knew his commitment to the youth of New Bedford was going to be a big part of their marriage going in.

"Before I even met him, he was always doing something with kids," she said. "He first started refereeing with boys his age, and he never really stopped. And over all these years, he's been able to stay young because he stays around kids."

Whether it is coaching his own children or those of complete strangers, Britto always left a lasting impression to those in his charge.

"I always tell him, 'Don't go to Market Basket with me, please' because we can't get out if we do," Avis said. "No matter where he goes, there's someone there who knows him. We went to New York, someone knew him. We went to Canada, someone knew him. He's just well known wherever he goes."

"She's an amazing girl," Britto said of Avis. "If I'm being honored for something, it should actually be her who is honored, because if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be able to do any of this. She's never said a word, but she's always just been by my side."

She says she always will be, for as long as he keeps heading down to the courts.

"How long is he going to keep on doing it? Until he can't," Avis Britto said. "I wouldn't want to see him stop. I want him to continue as long as he can."

"If we let these kids fall by the wayside, we'll lose them. We have to show them the good side of life," Peter Britto said. "If they get that foundation, they'll become stronger, become leaders for our city, for their peers. That's why I stay with it — not only for the love of the game, but to see what comes out of it."

"It doesn't take much to give, but you get a lot of thanks in return."